"Kari!….Kari!…Kari!… Oh there you are Kari…didn't you hear me calling you?" Gatomon plants herself in front a bed lying Kari.
"I'm sorry Gatomon, I am just out of it today."
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine" responds Kari. Gatomon narrows her eyes.
"Then why haven't you gotten up yet? It's already noon." Gatomon pulls the shades up and stares out their Seattle apartment. "Look at how beautiful the city is. Everyone is bustling in and out of the stores with loads of gifts. Little children giving their money to the bell ringing Santas with those little red jars. People saying hello to everyone on the street and smiling to complete strangers. The streets lined up with wreaths and holly.."
"Gatomon," Kari interrupts, "I know you're trying to get me in the Christmas spirit, but I just don't want to This is the first Christmas I'll spend without my family."
"Kari, your parents are just worried that it would be too dangerous to fly with all these blizzards hitting both the Japan and the West Coast."
"I know. I just wish I could be there with them."
"That's not all is it?" Kari rises from the bed and stretches.
"Why do you say that?"
"I've known you for 13 years. I think I
know you better than you think I do."
"Oh yeah?" Gatomon nods smugly. "Then why don't you tell me what's on my mind?" And with that Kari leaves the room for the bathroom. Gatomon yells behind her,
"I'll just wait until you come out of the bathroom, so I can astonish you with my wisdom."
Gatomon hears faint traces of laughter from the bathrooms. She grumbles to herself,
"At least she's laughing."
**
Kari plops down on the couch and stares at Gatomon with a sinister yet sweet smirk.
"So?"
Gatomon looks up from her nap position and says two words,
"Davis Motomiya." Then she puts her head back into position.
Kari, on the other hand, repetitively opens her mouth to respond, but closes them when she finds nothing. Gatomon, in a lazy tone, answers for Kari.
"How did I know? I told you hundreds of times that I was brilliant. Now you can't deny it."
"Oh Gatomon, I just don't understand it. Last Christmas he and I had the best holidays ever. We went ice-skating, caroling, roasting chestnuts, snow fights, snow forts. We were even Santa and Mrs. Claus for the Kiddy parties. But after we went back to college, he never tried to get in touch. All my letters and emails went unanswered. It's like I did something wrong…" Kari trails off and Gatomon comes over and snuggles next to Kari to comfort her.
"Kari, if you were to see Davis right now, would you ask him why he stopped correspondence?"
Kari stops and thinks about it and sighs,
"No, I just would want what we had a year ago."
"So you would never.."
"Oh I would…eventually. I just want his friendship back."
**
A few days later, Kari walks into Pottery Barn in search for a coffee table.
She lay her eyes on a mahogany oriental table and is completely captivated by it. So is the young man in front of it, and she joins the stranger in admiring the table. Kari tells the man that it reminds her of home and her family. The young man agrees and adjusts the visor he is wearing. He turns to face Kari and remarks to himself that she seems awfully familiar, but he can't see her face with that fuzzy scarf and hat pair she's wearing. Kari is too busy inspecting the table to notice the man intently watching her. In the midst of her thoughts, Kari remembers the man standing next to her and glances his way and double takes when she sees him staring with inquisitive eyes. She becomes fluster as he continues looking at her with no embarrassment.
"Excuse me, but this may seem rude, but you're being quite rude right now. Why are you staring at me?"
The young man looks down shamefully.
"I'm sorry...Kari."
His apology stuns Kari, and she tries to identify this strange man wearing a white visor in the winter, but it's hard with the guy looking at his feet and wearing that visor. The only feature she can make out is his spiky maroon hair. She gasps.
"Davis!"
Davis looks up with a scared shy smile.
"It's been awhile, eh?"
**
Kari leans over the table and squeezes Davis' hand as they wait for their coffee. As they look into each other's eyes, the waitress brings their drinks. The two sit quietly sipping, unitl Davis strikes up casual talk.
"This is good coffee."
"Yeah. Everybody thinks Starbucks is Seattle's finest, but it really is Seattle's Best Coffee, hence the name."
Davis answers with a yeah and one of his trademark grins. Kari blushes and looks down to study her coffee.
"So are you going home?" Kari, still looking down, shakes her head. "The weather?" Kari nods. "Yeah me too." Kari looks up and cocks her head sideways.
"What are you doing up here? Why aren't you in Indiana?"
Davis hesitates,
"I transferred up here?"
"To UW (a/n: University of Washington)?" Davis nods and Kari stares at him.
As if to justify his move, Davis utters,
"Better soccer program."
"Better than University of Indiana?" It's now Davis' turn to study his drink. "Weren't they #1 in the nation last season?"
Davis sheepishly responds yes.
"But UW has had a pretty good team, they were in the playoffs."
"And they lost the first round." declares Kari, "I don't understand. You were so excited about attending there last year. This is our third year in college, why transfer now? You must have gone through a whole lot of trouble transferring you credits. You left all your friends and all your admirers. Plus you left the soccer program high and dry. Davis, what ever possessed you to take such a drastic change?"
Davis whispers,
"It just didn't feel right Kari."
Kari closes her eyes to comprehend everything. She inhales deeply for so much was traveling through her head. As quickly as she went into the trance, she snaps out and demands answers from Davis in a hush hurried tone.
"Why didn't you tell me you were here? I go to UW, you know. I could have showed you around. We could have hung out, but no you didn't tell me. So are you playing soccer? you must be this hot transfer the girls are going gaga for. Whoo-who, you. How come I never heard of any fuss about you? You'd think the press you go crazy for. Does Ken know? Oh I bet he does and he probably told Yolei, who obviously didn't tell me! Does Tai know? TK? Mimi? Everyone knows, don't they? Everyone but me. I bet my dad even knows and he usually is the last to know anything. Do you want to know why everyone knows but me? It's cos you ditched me. I wasn't good enough for Mr. Star Soccer player from Indiana, oh wait it's Washington now, eh? I just wasn't good enough to know you or to be in your presence. I sent you gifts, no thank yous, I dismissed that cos I knew you wouldn't. I sent letters and emails, no response. I called you and you were always out. You are a coward. You didn't have the guts to even tell me why you didn't want to be my friend. Nuthole."
"Kari…" Davis rests his hand on her upper arm. Kari sighs.
"I'm sorry. I was just.."
"..telling the truth…"
"I'm still sorry. I don't mean to be like this. You just caught me off guard. Funny, I always thought if I saw you again, it wouldn't matter why you shunned me. I guess I thought wrong."
"Look Kari, I'm the one who should be sorry."
Davis takes Kari's hand and leads her outside the café.
"Davis, where are we going?" Davis doesn't answer and continues to lead her until they meet up with a cement bench.
"I just wanted to be completely alone with you. It felt like people were listening back there."
Kari agrees. Davis then grabs her hands and holds them tight, and with one breath he says,
"I'm so sorry. I should have said something, but I wanted to surprise you and I didn't think it would take so long and when I got here, I didn't know what to say since it practically took a year and everything didn't go according to my plan."
"What are you talking about?"
"Kari, last Christmas was the best I've ever had. With my family and yours up at my uncle's cabin, it was the greatest. I realized up there that there was something missing from my life at Indiana, and it was you, and I know you only want to be friends. So I'm willing to ignore those feeling even more than before and I promise to ignore them better than I did when we were younger. I just want to be with you." Davis moves closer to Kari and when she doesn't move away he adds, "It's not infatuation. I love you." Kari moves away.
"I don't understand."
"That Christmas, I decided to transfer to UW to be closer to you. I thought I would be here in time for Spring quarter, so I told everyone to keep hush, and I distanced myself from you to make my arrival even more enchanting. However, there was so much paperwork concerning my soccer scholarship and transferring my credits was just a bitch. I got clearance to come in August, just in time for soccer practice and starting Fall quarter. Anyways, when class started I was hoping to bump into you in class, but I had forgotten that my major is sport medicine and yours is history. When I realized that I would never see you in class, I hoped to run into you on campus, and it could be like a scene from a chick flick. Obviously, that didn't happen. I was also hoping you would come to a soccer game, but you probably wouldn't notice me anyways cos I'm on the sideling, red shirting it."
"Red shirting it?"
"Practicing with the team, but not playing any games. It's a NCAA rule for transfers, one year of red shirts."
"I see." Kari smiles and moves in closer to Davis. She moves his arm so it could drape across her arms and places her own hand on Davis' thigh. "Thank you anyways." Kari giggles and Davis is left puzzled.
"for what?"
"For attempting to surprise me." Davis smiles
"I try." Kari giggles harder.
"Only you would think pulling away would make a surprise more enchanting." Kari bursts into laughter.
"Hey, I just didn't think it through."
"When do you ever think it through?"
"Ouch, low blow."
Davis joins Kari in laughing.
"Davis, I miss this."
"So do I."
"I love you." Davis cocks his head sideways. "Yeah, I, Kari Kamiya, love you, Davis Motomiya." Davis breaks into a sly grin.
"See I knew you did. TK is SO gonna hear about this." Kari hits him in the arm. "I'm kidding." Davis then leans in and kisses Kari. When they finally parted Davis whispers,
"You know I love you. I've loved you for 11 years and I'll never stop." They snuggle closer. Kari saddening stands up.
"Let's go get Veemon. I know Gatomon will love to see him." Davis nods and allows himself to be pulled by Kari. "Davis?"
"Yeah?"
"Say you'll spend Christmas here with me?"
"I was hoping you would ask."
*el fin*
